Immunotherapy for Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases

The 2 most commonly encountered primary immunodeficiency syndromes in adult practice are antibody deficiency disorders and hereditary angio-edema. Immunologic therapy for these disorders has significantly improved patient management. Therapy with immunoglobulin leads to improvement in overall quality of life. With increasing survival rates and decreasing levels of life-threatening infections in patients with primary antibody deficiencies, disease complications are more commonly encountered. Treatment of these complications with monoclonal antibody therapy seems promising and is likely to increase in the future. More recently, several additional agents have become available, including novel drugs targeted at different elements of the disease process.